The Library is pleased to announce that Joan Hua joined its staff this autumn as the Oral History Project Manager. In the next 12 months, she will be working to develop a new collection of digital oral histories for the UW Tacoma Oral History: Founding Stories project. The collection aims to capture the memories and perspectives of individuals who played significant roles in the shaping of the campus community and identity. In her role, Joan will conduct interviews and research, process and describe digital objects, facilitate the discovery and long-term access to the collection, and develop a workflow to comprehensively manage a digital oral history collection.

Joan comes to us with a range of experiences in areas like music publishing, cultural heritage research and sustainability, digital content production, and instructional design. She has previously worked at the Smithsonian Institution (primarily at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage) and American University Library in Washington, D.C., before returning to Tacoma. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Washington Information School, which she expects to complete in June 2020. She is an Association of Research Libraries Diversity Scholar (2018–2020), ALA Spectrum Scholar (2019), and ARL+DLF Forum Fellow (2019).

For the Founding Stories project, she is particularly interested in diverse perspectives that show the rich and multifaceted history of UW Tacoma. She believes oral history is an excellent medium to tell nuanced stories and amplify underrepresented voices. Beyond scholarly research, Joan hopes the Library’s oral history practice and resources will have connections with learners and educators. She looks forward to exchanging ideas and connecting with members of this campus community. You can reach her at joanhua(at)uw.edu.